Commonly, a protective garment, such as a coat, trousers, overalls, or coveralls, for a firefighter or an emergency worker has plural layers, which provide the protective garment with protective properties, such as abrasion resistance, puncture resistance, thermal protection, and water repellence, which protect the firefighter or emergency worker against injury, which protect the protective garment against damage, or which protect both.
Commonly, an outer layer, which may be also called a shell, provides the protective garment with abrasion resistance and with puncture resistance, while inner liners provide the protective garment with a moisture and with thermal protection. Commonly, the shell has a water-repellent finish, such as a perfluorohydrocarbon finish, which provides the protective garment with water repellence. Non-continuous, vapor-permeable, retroreflective sections have also been provided on such garments, as exemplified in United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0019009 A1.